Youth Enigma

Since the earliest of days, the old have been critical of the young, most often because of a perceived ‘erosion of standards’. These days youth are roundly criticised for binge drinking, drug abuse or some vague ‘youth culture’ viz ‘you only live once’ syndrome.

Newsworthy are student or youth riots, binge drinking, drug sales or use and Facebook-gathered parties.

The most conspicuous of troublesome youth on the planet at present are the Boko Haram, Islamic State and other terror groups, albeit led or encouraged by older people who should know better.

While it is very easy to condemn the section of the population that is approaching adulthood, nature’s diverseness would indicate that there is much more to the group.

In recent times New Zealand youth contributed significantly to the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa and causing New Zealand to remain nuclear free. These two things did not come easily and at the time, protesting youth were roundly condemned by a status quo older generation. And it was predominantly the youth of the day whose protest convinced politicians of the unpopularity of the war in Vietnam.

Youth are also the main agitators in organisations such as Greenpeace and Amnesty International, which are thorns in the side of governments, but do influence policy.

The four franchise Reform Acts 1867 - 1918 [Who remembers those history lessons?] came about through the agitation of students and artisans, [among others] forcing the government of the day’s hand.

Historically youth have made significant contribution.

There have been youthful composers: Mozart 8, Mendelssohn 16, Schubert 17, Chopin 19, and Paganini 23.

Joan of Ark motivated a French army and was burnt on a stake for her trouble at the age of 19.

Alexander the Great was 17 when he took his first command.

Muhammad bin Qasim was 17 when he took his first command.

Youthful leaders have dotted their way through history.

Millie, a young English student, writes a weekly column in our local newspaper. Writing about subjects of personal importance, [which may not necessarily be the cup of tea for an old forest ranger – but are enlightening], she writes well and her points of view are fair and rightly promote her opinions.

Likewise, weekly in the same paper, essays written by secondary school students from around the region are published. Again these are point-of-view essays in the main, and all are carefully researched and well presented. These young people are articulate and intelligent, which indicates that the future will be in capable hands.

Of course there will always be growing plans and the usual slipping and sliding but it demonstrates that what appears in the media is mostly one section of the crowd.

It is apparent that there are many distractions for youth that makes the road bumpy, including peer pressure, social media, education and the need to be accepted – even loved.

However the greatest influence is and should be their parents. From the age of three, children begin to emulate – starting with speech, so they usually end up using similar speech and phrases as their parents.

After all, parents in those early years are the child’s heroes, so why would they not emulate them?

Surprisingly, if a parent has a limp, maybe because of a hip problem, then the child will emulate that same walking style and possibly end up with that same hip problem.

The habits and way of life of parents will generally be photocopied by their children.

The responsibility on parents becomes onerous and serious. But too often parents expect schools to be responsible for their child’s education. In fact the responsibility sits squarely with parents. Teachers are facilitators of subjects and motivate therefore have a huge role, but parental responsibility is for discipline, standards and common sense. Too often when parents see their child not performing at school, they expect the teachers to address the inadequacies.

‘School will sort him/her out.’ Is a parental cop-out.

These days the lure of electronic devices is strong, but here’s one ‘for instance’.

At evening meal times, the family sits together at the table – there is no special food [choice] for likes and dislikes, everyone eats what is served. Nobody leaves the table until all are finished, and before anyone leaves the table, in turn everyone tells the rest the best part [or even the worst] of their particular day.

This engenders respect for the cook and the household economy and from an early age it stimulates the thought process and encourages intelligent, lucid speech.

There may well be other positives to this scenario including the family growing together.

It’s not difficult!

Overall the present managers of this planet struggle to achieve a pass mark, and the next generations will have to cope with that legacy, so they need to be empowered.